Older People Insist on Brand Name Drugs, Costing Medicare Millions-- from WNYC

Typically, older  Russian immigrants in NYC simply REFUSE to accept generic drugs from their doctors, as do many others...

But it has been shown that SOME generic drugs are ineffective knockoffs sold by unscrupulous generic manufacturers...

WNYC News

At One Brooklyn Address, $1.8 Million Wasted

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

By Amanda Aronczyk

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The Levit Medical Arts Pavilion on Avenue P in Brooklyn (Amanda Aronczyk)

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Medicare Part D, which provides medications to 36 million Americans by giving seniors and the disabled access to prescription drugs, is often described as a healthcare success story, coming in below cost estimates.

But when ProPublica looked closely at Medicare's prescription data, they found hundreds of millions of dollars a year were being wasted — all because a small percentage of doctors prescribe name-brand drugs instead of lower-cost generics, even when the generics work just as well. Right here in New York City, these doctors could save Medicare over $50 million a year.

WNYC teamed up with ProPublica to find out: why? We started by visiting 1220 Avenue P in Brooklyn, the Levit Medical Center. If just six doctors at this one address prescribed in a different way, they could have saved Medicare $1.8 million dollars in 2011 alone.

Want to find out how your doctor is prescribing? Check out ProPublica's Prescriber Checkup. Type in a physician's name or zip code and you'll find out more about how physicians spend Medicare's money.